Driving in Reverse
by Quiet Leaf
Summary: When Danny Phantom's parents built a portal into the human world, it didn't work. When Danny went inside, he found an on button—so naturally, he pushed it. Now he's half human.


**Yo! Wow, first time posting a Danny Phantom fic. I've been wanting to do this for a while. Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Danny Phantom came from an eccentric family. That was saying something, considering that they were ghosts, but even being what they were, they were weird.

Danny's parents studied humans. They were obsessed—literally, humans were their obsession. Danny didn't see the point. They weren't human anymore, hadn't been for years, and they, er, "lived" in a new world now—might as well leave humanity behind. He and his parents didn't see eye to eye on this matter.

For the last several years, Jack and Maddie Phantom had been trying to build a permanent portal into the living world, or, as they called it, the Human Zone. Kind of a stupid name, in Danny's opinion; they wouldn't have called it that if they were still alive.

Still, he had to admit it would be cool to see the human world again. Things were so different in the Ghost Zone; endless swirling green skies, floating doors and islands of ghostly civilization. Danny couldn't remember the last time he'd seen blue skies and living plants… which was why he was now wandering into the inactive portal, which apparently didn't work at all.

He frowned at the cords trailing across the floor. They were all plugged into their sockets, and nothing seemed out of place. So why had the portal failed to start? He picked his way across the wires, glancing at the back wall. To think this was supposed to lead to the living world.

He stopped in the middle, looked at the walls on either side, and could have slapped himself.

There was a pair of On/Off buttons on the wall to his left. Which of his parents was responsible for this? Probably his dad, he thought.

He barely hesitated before he reached out and pressed the On button—it wasn't like anything would happen to him, he was a ghost.

Then everything disappeared in a flash of light and pain.

* * *

In Amity Park there was a number of supposedly haunted houses. Tucker said he didn't believe any of those rumors, but when it came time to look around, he shook like a leaf.

Sam was inclined to believe all of those rumors, which was why they were sneaking into the most haunted house in town, three blocks from Casper High.

"Seriously, Sam," Tucker hissed. "This is _illegal_. We're breaking and entering!"

"No one cares, Tucker. And we're not breaking, just entering." Sam heaved the window open and poked her head through. All clear. "Come on." She pulled herself through the hole into the dark house beyond.

There was some grumbling, and a moment later Tucker joined her. "You are not dragging me on any more of your expeditions after this. I don't want to be arrested."

"That's what you said last time, yet here we are." Sam shone her flashlight around the room.

It looked to be a living room, lacking furniture. The front door was on the left wall, probably locked. On the right was the kitchen and a staircase leading to the second floor. It didn't feel haunted, but hey, maybe that wasn't how it worked.

"Let's check out the kitchen first," Sam decided. She crept to the entryway, Tucker tiptoeing behind her, and looked around; nothing much here either.

Tucker broke the silence. "Do you think—"

An ear splitting scream sounded from somewhere below them, and there was a flash of light under the door on the other side of the room.

Sam froze, Tucker let out a little squeak.

"Uh, S-Sam—"

She grinned shakily. "Definitely haunted."

Tucker's jaw dropped. "Oh my gosh. Sam, no. We have to get out of here, someone's being murdered or something!"

"Or they were already murdered a long time ago. Come on, let's go check it out." She began to cross to the door.

"Oh my gosh," Tucker moaned. "We're gonna die. We're gonna die."

Sam gritted her teeth, grabbed the doorknob in an iron-knuckled grip, and flung the door open before she could change her mind. An otherworldly, almost electric smell flew out to meet her; the hairs on her arms stood on end. She took a deep, steadying breath, and started down the stairs. There was an empty moment before Tucker's steps followed hers. Half way down she caught a whiff of smoke. Was something burning? There was more at the bottom, but it was filtering up and out of the room. It seemed oddly heavy, and drifted slowly.

The room was a basement, as expected. At the far wall to the right was a large, glowing green light, as was not expected. They both gasped.

"What is that?" Tucker whispered.

"How am I supposed to know?" Sam turned the flashlight off—there was no need for it anymore—and started making her way to the light. She could practically smell Tucker's fear now, but he continued, falling into step next to her.

They were almost there when there was a quiet groan in front of them. They froze. A ghost?

Sam tightened her grip on her flashlight and squinted through the smoke in front of them.

There was another groan, the rustling of clothes, and movement on the floor just a few feet away. The smoke cleared a bit, and there was a boy about her age lying on the ground; black hair, white clothes. Seemed pretty ghostly.

Tucker cleared his throat beside her. "Hey, uh, are you okay?"

"Tucker!" she hissed. "That could be a ghost!"

"Hmm?" The boy rolled over and sat up, pressing a hand to his forehead. "Ugh, what…? The portal!" He shot to his feet and swayed there, Tucker and Sam jumped back. The kid stared at the light for a moment. "Yes! It worked!" He spun around, grinning, and almost fell over. The smile faded. "Wait, what?" He looked down, staring at his clothes blankly, then held his hands in front of his face. A shaking hand was brought to his neck and pressed there for a few seconds.

There was dead silence. Sam held her breath, and Tucker breathed harshly.

Then the boy screamed. "I'M ALIVE!" He pulled down a lock of hair, barely glancing at it before switching to just clutching his head. "Oh my gosh. Holy heck. This can't be happening. How is this possible? What am I going to tell Mom?" He was hyperventilating now, tugging at his hair, gaze flickering wildly about the room and somehow never landing on them.

Not a ghost, then.

Sam cleared her throat. "Uh, hey. Are you okay?"

His eyes finally landed on them. "Nooo," he moaned. "You're humans. You're HUMANS." His eyes stretched impossibly wide, rolled back into his head, and he fainted on the spot. A bright light washed over him, his hair turned white and his clothes changed to black. His skin might have been a couple shades darker, but it was hard to tell through the remaining smoke and the green glow of the… portal.

Sam and Tucker stood there, gaping.

"What are we going to do with him?" Tucker whispered.

"Um." Sam licked her lips. "I guess… we could take him upstairs for now? Maybe bring him to my place?"

Tucker sent her an incredulous look. "Are you crazy? He's like a—a ghost or something! You can't just bring him into your house!"

"He can't be a ghost _and_ alive at the same time, Tucker." _I think._ "It'll be fine. Besides, he just passed out on the floor of the basement in a haunted house with some kind of glowing portal in it—we can't just leave him here. Maybe he can tell us about what that thing is."

"...Fine."

"Okay." She tucked her flashlight into the hem of her pants. "Now help me carry him."

They powered up the stairs in a minute and dropped the incredibly cold boy on the kitchen floor.

"I'm not sure we can get him all the way to your house," Tucker panted.

"We came on the scooters, Tucker."

"Yeah, exactly. How are you supposed to ride on the same scooter as an unconscious ghost-human thing? He'll just fall off."

She though for a moment. "We could carry him and leave the scooters."

"I hate to break it to you, but my noodle arms are not strong enough to support the weight of a human for three miles, even with help."

"We could stay here for the night."

Tucker stared at her. "Are you serious."

"Yes."

"Seriously?"

"Mm-hm."

He took off his beret, wringing it in his hands. "I dunno, Sam. This seems risky."

"We'll just stay until he wakes up again," she persuaded. "Then we can talk and I can take him home if he wants."

Tucker sighed. "You make a convincing argument. Come on, I don't want to sit on the tile." He grabbed the boy under the armpits and started dragging him toward the carpeted living room.

Sam closed the basement door and switched her flashlight on again. There was a faint thump from the living room and Tucker let out a little gasp. "Wait, Sam, come here—and turn off the light!"

"What is it?" She strode to the living room, covering the flashlight beam with her hand. "...Oh."

The boy was glowing a faint white, just barely visible, but growing stronger.

She turned the flashlight off. "Do you think that's a bad sign?"

He shrugged hopelessly. "Maybe it's a ghost thing."

"Yeah." Was he a ghost though? He _had_ seemed pretty surprised to be alive… and he called them humans as if he wasn't one…

The boy rolled over with a grunt and sat up, blinking at them with glowing green eyes—had they been like that before?

"Where am I? Why—" He looked down at himself and stopped. "Oh. Oh, yes!" He floated victoriously into the air, grinning a little too wide to be natural. His voice had an echo to it, and Sam could've sworn it wasn't there before.

"You're flying!" Tucker gasped.

"More like floating." He stared at them. "Oh shoot, you're humans. I knew that. I—I better leave…" He started drifting up.

"Wait!" Sam yelped.

He stopped.

"First of all, that's not the right way. And, second…" She steeled herself. "Are you a ghost?"

"Oh." He rubbed his neck nervously. "Uh—" There was another flash of light and a thump. "Ow!"

Sam and Tucker blinked at the boy, who was now on the floor again, black hair and white clothes returned. His eyes weren't glowing anymore.

"Oh man, this is…" He stood up, running his hands through his hair. "This is fine. No, I'm lying, it isn't."

Tucker frowned. "What isn't fine? What's going on?"

The boy sighed. "I'm supposed to be a ghost, but now this is happening." He furrowed his brow. "Why…?" He fell silent, staring off into the distance, and realization seemed to dawn. "Oh, the portal. Of course. I-I'm like some kinda messed superhero." He chuckled flatly. "Yeah, not a ghost I guess, but also a ghost… I mean I'm not a ghost now, but I usually am, um…"

Sam and Tucker exchanged a glance.

"Sorry," Sam said, "but that didn't make any sense. At all."

"Okay, okay, maybe we should start over." He held out his hand. "I'm Danny Phantom. Actually I think my family name when we were alive was Fenton, so maybe I'm Danny Fenton now. I don't know."

Sam shook; the boy wasn't cold anymore. "Sam Manson."

"I'm Tucker Foley."

"Okay, cool." Danny rocked back and forth on his heels. "So, uh, I don't exactly know what happened myself, but I have an idea." He exhaled. "My parents are ghosts, y'know, and they're kinda obsessed with the living. And they were scientists when they were alive, they hunted ghosts if I remember correctly." He chuckled. "That's kinda ironic, isn't it? They hunted ghosts and we died and they decided to study humans. So anyway, there are a lot of temporary portals that pop up between the human world and the Ghost Zone, that's where we—I mean the ghosts live, and they wanted to create a permanent portal so they could visit whenever they wanted and it didn't work so they left to take a break and I went inside and found an on button, so I pressed it because I thought I wouldn't be affected since I'm already dead, y'know? But I was electrocuted or something and now I'm here, like this." He took a deep breath. "I haven't had to breathe for a long time, wow. Sorry for rambling."

"So basically what you're saying," Tucker said slowly, "is that you were… alived? Like killed but the opposite."

"Basically, yeah. Anyway, I should probably get going for real now before someone notices I'm gone."

"Oh." Sam turned on her flashlight. "It was nice meeting you. The way back is through the kitchen," she gestured with the light, "down the stairs behind the door, can't miss it."

"Thanks." He didn't move, just stared at his white-clothed shoulder in consternation. "I don't know how to change back."

"...I'm sure you'll figure it out," Tucker reassured him.

"I can't go back looking like a human, what would my parents think?" He started tugging at his hair again. "How do I change back?"

"Maybe just think about it," Sam suggested.

"I've been trying that while we were talking, it didn't work." He glanced down. "Maybe I'll just stay here until I figure out."

"Really?" she sounded a bit too cheerful, but the prospect of learning more from this kid was so inviting.

"Yeah. Who knows how long that will take, though. Maybe that's a bad idea. You know what, I'll just go." With that said, he made his way back through the kitchen.

* * *

Danny paused with his hand on the doorknob. He hadn't really reassured himself at his point. He had no idea how his parents would react to this—would they be delighted? Disappointed? Worried? Fascinated? Disgusted? ...Jealous? He knew they were jealous of humans, they'd never gotten over their deaths. Sure, Danny was a little disappointed he didn't get to live very long, but he was happy where he was.

But his parents… what would they do if they found him this way?

It couldn't hurt to stick around in the human world for a bit. Just until he figured out how to control this whole human thing.

He turned back around and returned to the living room; Sam and Tucker were right where he left them. "I've decided to stay," he announced. "Just for now, you know? Till I figure things out. But I… I don't have anywhere to stay."

Tucker looked at Sam, who smiled.

"You can stay at my place. My house is so big my parents won't even notice you."

Danny brightened up. "Really? You sure?"

She nodded. "Oh, absolutely."

* * *

**That's all folks, here's to hoping I have the motivation to finish this story. :)**

**-Quiet Leaf**


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